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Sargares

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Posts posted by Sargares

  1. I think curiosity of the limits is a big factor as you say. “Seeing what all the fuss is about.” I’ve not been into astronomy long enough to know really but guitars I’ve had some absolutely eye wateringly expensive guitars over the years. That’s another hobby with extremely diminishing returns at the top end haha. Bang for buck? Hell no. But it’s nice to have had them anyway. 
     

    Also it’s nice to own and thus support something that’s been loved and made with passion rather than something that’s been knocked off a Far Eastern production line. Even if said production line does a sterling job these days. 

    • Like 3
  2. 80mm ED for me last night. Plan to drag the dob out tonight if I can be bothered and the clouds aren’t too heavy although I’ve pretty much deciding I’m buying a 5inch doublet to replace it for home use. 
     

    lots of time on the moon then did Rigel, Polaris and a few easy doubles. Then had a go with 30mm UFF on Pleiades then had a pop at orions nebula which was just about naked eye visible despite a nearly full moon nearby and looked fairly good even in a 3” scope with no filter on. Great seeing for me last night though and not a cloud in the sky. Didn’t even mind the full moon as I was using a small frac. Wanted to try for Uranus but it’s in no mans land a bit so I was having a hard time hoping to it and gave up a little after midnight as I couldn’t bare the cold any longer. 
     

    Oh and I did the winter triangle stars too just because. First time I’ve looked at Orion since last winter. My garden faces south and this was first session out in the front in ages. Obviously Sirius is too low and Procyon isn’t getting separated with an 80mm and Betelgeuse is fairly uninteresting but thought I’d have a look anyway as it’s been a while. Nice to see Venus too although that’s setting before I’m home this week and it’s extremely low.

  3. Little bit more time on this scope now. 
     

    For planets it definitely beats 4.5 newt. Jupiter main bands are fairly obvious although faint. I can make out slightly more detail than in the newt although I suspect this is mainly contrast helping.

     

    Saturn is nice but so far can’t get the Cassini division. Can’t do it in the 4.5 either though. Saturn’s really a pain due to being so low though. I tried to push up the mag tonight to almost 200x and it was a no go, just to see. Saturn was visible and distinct but slightly blurry and too dark. I think about 140 maybe slightly less would’ve worked ok but I don’t have enough eyepiece graduations to figure it out. no real benefit going over 100x anyway. 
     

    Haven’t had another chance on the moon yet. 
     

    For open starfields it’s actually better than I thought it would be. Not as good as the 4.5 newt but totally useable. I just had a quick look at m29 before the clouds roll in and the main stars that form the cooling tower pattern where all clearly visible through a 9mm Morpheus. 
     

    vega through the 5mm Delite which is as much power as I’ve got without Barlowing was a small tight disk and totally colourless. 
     

    • Like 2
  4. 2 hours ago, IB20 said:

    I’m the same - an f10 80mm, but I still feel i’ll have a better chance than my 8” dob. I tried last winter with that and it was just like looking at an underwater mirror ball.

     

    Yeh the superior image control might allow dialling  up the magnification enough to manage it. It’s certainly within the resolving power of the scope. 

  5. I think I might have a useful perspective as I’m not Uber experienced and recently bought my first proper refractor. 
     

    snagged the stellamira 80 f10 off the classifieds. 
     

    I’ve got a 10” SW dob and an Orion starblast on an EQ1. 
     

    Starblast is great by the way, super wide field of view and surprisingly good light capture but a newt on an EQ is a truly horrible combination. 
     

    Get a 4” refractor…. I’d like to upgrade my dob at some point too but it’d be for limited gain in performance in truth. 
     

    My next scope will almost certainly be a 125ed like @johninderby to give me a refractor with more aperture. 
     

    Yesssss the dob beats everything else I’ve got. When the seeing is good it beats them by a LOT. Lugging that god awful mount out into the garden though and then bear hugging the tube out after it puts me off using it 80% of the time. If I’m not having a big session I won’t get it out, and I’m relatively young, have no injuries, good eyes. Prime candidate for using a large reflector, and I still can’t be bothered usually. 
     

    The refractor just feels right to use. It’s nice to look through rather than into. The contrast on the refractor is better than the reflectors. Sharpness is better. The image may not have as much detail but it’s more pleasing and easier to pick out the detail that is there. Stars have much better shapes, especially the bright ones. It’s almost strange to see vega as a disk floating in the blackness compared to a big cross sat on dark grey. The moon looks especially good through the refractor. 

    no worries about collimation. Fast cool down on a doublet. 
     

    If I was going to have only one refractor (which I’ve already decided isn’t enough personally) I think 4” apo doublet is probably the one to have which covers the most ground while still being grab and go sized. 
     

    look for a used mount, don’t bother with goto IMO. The eq1 if that’s what you’re planning on using will struggle with anything but the very smallest and lightest scopes. 

     

    imo blow the entire budget on a tecnosky 102 f7 or Altair 102ed-r and worry about a mount diagonal etc later or just go over budget by a couple of hundred quid. I suspect the above options will be good enough to scratch the itch without leaving you with a what if thought that you might get going for something on the very budget end. 

     

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
  6. 1 hour ago, johninderby said:

    With the recent massive price increase by SW on their dobs they aren’t such a good buy anymore. They used to be a good buy but not now when you can buy far better equiped dobs for a similar price. 

     

    16 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

    Very true, as I paid £299 for my 200P,  just as lockdown was about to begin (Feb 2020).

    400quid on eBay for 8-10” SW dobs at the moment. And all the risk of buying telescopes on eBay! 

    • Sad 1
  7. 8 hours ago, Alan White said:

    I was watching it in the Classifieds and was slightly tempted, just because, but held back as its to close to the other 80 and 100 that I own to make sense for me.

    I started with an 80 Refractor Achromat so many years ago, as did many others, enjoy it, what with the ED glass,
    should be an utter pleasure.

    Mount wise is the AZ Gti really up to holding it for the full enjoyment of such a scope?

    Unsure. Worst case I’ll grab a slightly beefier mount for it as it’ll be pushing the az gti pretty hard. I’ll give it a whirl with a counter weight too. Claimed weight is only a few hundred grams more than a tak fc100dl/z and I’m pretty sure they go on a az gti ok but I suspect the stellamira maybe a little heavier than claimed. It’s quite the little tank. 
     

    Edit: I think I’ll screw the EQ1 counter weight into the az gti and see how it gets on. Should balance it a little better. If it’s annoyingly unstable still I’ll possibly try an az4 and Chuck the starblast onto the az gti. 

    • Like 1
  8. So i snagged one of these off the classifieds on here from @scotty38 It turned up this morning beautifully packaged and it’s not too bad out tonight (miracle.) 

     

    First impressions are it’s beautiful to look at. Very well put together. It’s got the rack and pinion type focuser which works very nicely. It’s fairly heavy for a 3incher but it’s quite long. I believe it’s about 4kg with the rings.

     

    my plan is to sling it on an Az GTi, however, that’s at my brothers and I can’t get it in time for tonight! So I chucked it on an Orion eq1. Totally inadequate even with extra counter weights.  With finder, diagonal and eyepiece in I’d say probably 1/3 over the capacity of the mount. Not the most stable. Never the less better than nothing! 
     

    Ive not got the skills to determine the very fine details of any optical faults but safe to say I can’t see any. Maybe a tiny bit of yellow fringing on the moon when it’s on the edge of the eyepieces field and I’m pretty sure that isn’t the scopes fault. 
     

    Id say light capture is in the ballpark of a 4inch reflector. Slightly less bright than the starblast I use as a grab and go all the time. Stars are all perfect round spots on a very black background. Definitely beats the reflectors for contrast. 
     

    I’ve had a good go at the moon tonight with it and it’s absolutely excellent at that. Pretty good on Jupiter too. Similar levels of banding and detail to the starblast (moons visible, 2-3 belts visible) but with the refractor magic factor. Sharper, more contrasty and everything seems more 3dimensional. Can’t touch the 10” dob of course although the image is probably more pleasing aesthetically, I prefer it in the moon even to the big dob due to how sharp the image is. 
     

    open star fields it’s pretty naff, too slow and not enough aperture. I haven’t had a go at separating any double stars with it yet due to the mount being overloaded but I imagine it’ll do a nice job of that within its capabilities. 
     
     

    pretty basic assessment but I’d say as a package it’s pretty specialised as a lunar/planetary/easier double star grab and go set up and it seems to deliver on that front really well. That’s basically exactly what I bought it for so jobs a good’un. I’d like a tak fc100dz which would probably have a little more flexibility but you know…. Quadruple the price! 

    • Like 8
  9. I’ve got one for the exact same scope. 
     

    it needs some simple modifications to make it work (spacer) and then you ideally need to set the coma corrector with your most info is eyepiece and then parfocalise the rest (or just focus them in the coma corrector by sliding them out untill they focus. All easier done than it sounds) 

     

    personally I don’t use it full stop with higher magnification and I can take it or leave it on low power. I can see the coma without it in for sure but it doesn’t annoy me enough that I can’t get by. If I’m having a proper session I will use it but if it’s just a spur of the moment thing I usually don’t bother. 
     

    personal taste. if the coma really annoys you then it’ll get more use, it’s really not the hard to use once you’ve done the small amount of set up to make it work though. 

  10. On CN I’m pretty sure I saw the tec140fl was corrected quite a bit better in blue and a little less well in green and red specifically at the request of imagers for the sake of keeping tight stars. So if you’ve got any AP ambitions then the fluorite model is probably worth the extra money. The ED certainly seems to do be well regarded though for a primarily visual design. 
     

    ive not tried either a tek140 (hens teeth so not surprising) or a tsa 120 but If I had the options of either I’d take the tek for the extra aperture (while still being quite a light scope) and the romance factor (which is the only way to justify these things anyway ha). 
     

    • Like 1
  11. That’s normal. It’s much much bigger than that but unless you’ve got the right conditions the rest of it isn’t even a smudge. It’s just not even there. With my little newt in my front with even worse light pollution due to the street (south facing back garden) during the summer I can’t see ANYTHING. Not even the centre bit. If I look where andromeda is it’s just prominent stars and that’s it. 
     

    the grey smudge will get bigger and bigger with better viewing. M13 which is probably the best globular cluster looks like a faint cloud to me  from my garden. Even doubling the aperture size only slightly improves it. 
     

    if you can,one night with a good forecast drive out to the darkest spot you can. Bortle 3 is usually about as good as you’re gonna get unless you’re in The middle of nowhere. I guarantee you won’t be able to fit m31 into your field of view. 

  12. 2 hours ago, Maideneer said:

    Managed to get out for an hour last night.  I'm VERY confused at something, particularly with M31.  Popping this into Astronomy Tools I get a view like the one attached which is obviously ridiculously close up.  The problem is, it doesn't match reality, like...at all.  I slewed to M31 and used this exact setup described and it looks far away...too far away.  I know it's what I was looking at because my alignments were bang on with other objects - so I saw the M31 core and the grey smudges and all that but I really don't know why it looked like it was about an eighth the size of the picture attached.  I feel like such a disparity means I'm doing something wrong and I can't identify what it might be.

    Capture.JPG

    M31 is hard work as it’s so dispersed. You can usually only see the bright centre and a bit of a smudge around it. The better the conditions and  the bigger the scope the more you can see. Most nights I can’t see much or anything at all. 
     

    if you get out to a good dark site though you can see andromeda naked eye. 

    • Like 2
  13. DSO’s are a tough find especially from light polluted spots. From my suburban garden on a good dark night I can just about find distinct ones like m13 etc. I can just about get those even with a 4.5” newt. If the moons out and full you’ve not got much chance. 
     

    seeing really makes a difference too. I had a go last night as the cloud forecast is bad for the next couple of weeks. Full moon. Windy. Couldn’t even resolve the double double into 4 stars with a 10” dob…. Just into 2 fuzzy eggs. 

  14. On 05/09/2021 at 18:21, scarp15 said:

    You would like an 18.2mm DeLite should one come up on the classified.

    Seconded. I grabbed a couple of high ish power Delites recently for planetary viewing and they’re mega. I don’t have an 18.2 as at that mag for a dob it’s too narrow fov for me but I see lots of people raving about the 18.2. 
     

    they sort of remind me view wise of a plossl but much more user friendly and a wider fov. 

    • Like 1
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